Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Wallace threw up his hands. “That doesn’t—you know what? Fine. They
look like scones.”
“Thank you,” Hugo said seriously. “That’s nice of you to say.”
Wallace groaned.
At promptly half past seven, Charon’s Crossing opened for business.
Wallace watched as Hugo unlocked the front door, flipping the sign in the
window from CLOSED to WE’RE OPEN! COME ON IN! He didn’t know what to
expect. The tea shop was removed from the town, and he thought if there
were any customers at all, they’d trickle in slowly throughout the day.
So, imagine his surprise when he saw people already waiting outside. As
soon as the lock clicked on the door, it opened, a stream of people pouring
in.
Some formed a line at the counter, greeting Hugo as if they’d known him
for a long time. Others sat at the tables, rubbing sleep from their eyes as they
yawned. They wore business attire or uniforms for their places of
employment. There were young people in beanies, their bags slung over their
shoulders. He was shocked when no one immediately pulled out a laptop or
stared down at their phones.
“No Wi-Fi,” Mei said when he asked. She was bustling around the kitchen
with practiced ease. “When people come here, Hugo wants them to talk to
one another instead of being fixated on a screen.”
“Of course he does,” Wallace said. “It’s a hipster thing, isn’t it?”
Mei turned slowly to stare at him. “Please let me be there when you say
that to Hugo. I want to see the look on his face when you call him a hipster. I
need it like air.”
Hugo rang up the orders on his old cash register, his smile never faltering
as he put pastries in little bags or delivered teapots to waiting tables.
Wallace stayed in the kitchen, watching him through the porthole windows.
He thought about going out to the front, but he stayed right where he was. He
told himself it was because he didn’t want to get in the way.
Not that he could.
Nelson went back to his chair in front of the fireplace. Wallace noticed no
one ever tried to sit in the chair, though they couldn’t see it was taken. Apollo